How To Grow Out A Pixie Cut

1.9K Shares

I think a lot of people are put off cutting their hair short by the daunting task of growing it again.

When I started thinking of re-growing my hair, I spent ages searching “how to grow out a pixie cut” on the internet. I wanted tutorials, hints, tips… anything that would help me get through the hard times ahead.

I did find a couple of really great, informative articles (which I’ll link to at the end) but, surprisingly, I struggled to find as much useful information as I’d expected to.

So I’ve written out my pixie journey, including style pics from my shortest crop all the way up to my current shoulder-length style.

Hopefully it will be of some use to those of you looking for ideas and advice on how to grow out your own pixie.

And maybe it’ll convince you long-haired lovelies that growing out short hair wouldn’t be as bad as you imagine!

Like most of my life choices, getting my hair cut was very much an impulsive decision. It took all of a week to go from Pinterest-board-maybe to full ohmysweetJesusit’sallgone reality.

And I loved it!

It was a bit too long in the beginning. My hairdresser wimped out on me and thought I’d hate it if she went too short, but actually the extra inch made it look weird and it just didn’t quite work on me.

It took a few months and several different hairdressers before I managed to nail the Carey Mulligan crop I wanted.

It was easy to style, easy to wear and for once in my life I felt effortlessly stylish.

The downside of this fabulous haircut was the incredibly time-consuming and expensive upkeep.

After about a year and a half of living as a pixie, I got quoted £8.50 for a fringe-trim and knew it was time to grow my hair again!

JULY-SEPTEMBER 2013: The Beginning of the End

Once I’d decided to start growing it out, the long side fringe just didn’t work. So after a couple of weeks I parted my hair down the middle and cut myself some straight blunt bangs.

To keep the sides tidy, I started twisting and pinning them back and away from my face.

I wore this style every day for the next few months and absolutely loved it.

It was super simple, kept all the awkward layers pinned out of the way and still managed to look classy and tidy for work.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2013: The Sideswept Not-Quite-A-Bob

This was my favourite style of the growing-out period.

I loved the volume and swishiness of it!

At this point the hair on the back of my neck had grown longer than the rest, giving me what I like to call a little duck tail.

It’s not a good look, but I was still too broke to go to the hairdressers. I was also scared that even if I did go, they’d cut more off than I wanted and put my growth-mission back by a couple of months.

So I trimmed it myself, by twisting sections at the back and trimming it with nail scissors in front of my bedroom mirror.

Classy.

But it totally worked!

I also went brown for a couple of weeks before jumping back into my blonde with a bit of ColourB4 help.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013: The Justin Beiber

Ahh the dreaded JB.

The curse that all women fear and no pixie-grower can entirely avoid.

It’s that horrible moment when some bits of your hair are both too long and too short all at the same time. Nothing is the same length, pieces stick out where you don’t want them too and, unfortunately, there’s not much you can do except style it out with plenty of headbands, hair grips and hats.

Funnily enough I don’t have many photos from this period of my life.

But here’s one that highlights just how much a bad haircut can make my head look like a misshapen potato…

JANUARY 2014: Slowing Down

At this point I felt like my hair growth stalled.

Maybe the dying and re-dying had damaged it a bit and that slowed it down? Maybe all the chocolate and lack of vitamins over Christmas did it? Who knows!

But it felt like I was going nowhere fast.

I went back to the beginning and started wearing it pinned back at the sides again. I cut my straight fringe back in, dyed it all to match my roots, and just let it do it’s own thaang.

I was bored and sad…

FEBRUARY 2014:

And then, suddenly, it all changed.

At the beginning of February, one of my friends introduced me to Alpecin.

It’s a caffeine-based shampoo that stimulates the scalp as you wash and promotes hair growth. It’s actually aimed at balding men, but my friend had somehow heard about it and had been trying it for herself.

She’s always had quite fine, shoulder-length-ish hair. But when we met up for a girls night out, all any of us could say to her was: ohmyfreakingGod your hair is so long.

She’d been using Alpecin for just two weeks and her hair had seemed to just explode out of her head (her words, not mine). Suddenly it was longer, thicker and healthier.

You can imagine how intrigued I was.

And then she sealed the deal by telling me it was only £5 and available in Boots. What did I have to lose?

So down I trundled to my local Boots and I started washing my hair 3 or 4 times a week with Alpecin.

It is quite drying, so a couple of times a week I swapped it for my Herbal Essences Hello Hydration shampoo. I used conditioner with every wash and made sure to deep-condition once a week.

Around this time I also started having whey protein shakes for breakfast every day, as I’d read that eating/drinking lots of protein was good for hair growth.

MARCH 2014: The “Miracle” Growth Shampoo

I’m not exaggerating when I say that within three weeks my hair had gone from the picture above, to this …

Was it the shampoo? Was it the protein? Was it just my hair kicking back into growing-gear? Who knows. But whatever it was, it was working miracles!

I didn’t suddenly have long-princess-Rapunzel locks. My hair was still (very) short.

But I definitely noticed a huge difference. Look how HEALTHY my hair looks! Look how thick and luscious!

It grew about an inch in those three weeks and I was both stunned and converted.

And things only got better from there on in.

APRIL-MAY 2014: The Home-Straight

Within 6 weeks of the above picture, my hair was finally touching the tops of my shoulders. (This was around the time I started blogging.)

I had an actual hairstyle, as opposed to just curtains falling wherever they could.

June 2014

This photo is from last week’s Foodies Festival.

It’s now 11 months since I last had a haircut (my DIY nail-scissor trims don’t count!) and I’m finally in a happy hair-place.

My hair is the healthiest it’s been for many, many years. I’m still using the Alpecin shampoo, but not as much as I was. I don’t feel I need it anymore. I’m no longer desperate for long locks.

I’d still like to keep growing my hair, but I’m actually looking at getting it trimmed and shaped at the moment. Long bobs seem to be in fashion so I might as well cash in on that!

I’ve no doubt that one day I’ll go back to pixie. Looking at all these pics again has made me more sure of that than ever! But I’d also like to get back to my super-long lion’s-mane… so who knows?